Your Rights & Responsibilities when Moving

General Points
• General information about your is available in the General Services Administration's booklet "Shipping Your Household Goods."

• This brochure will give you specific information about your rights and responsibilities during your household good (HHGs) move and the responsibilities of moving company handling your move.

• More detailed information about the mover's responsibilities to you and to the Government is contained in the GSA Tender of Services (TOS). The mover has agreed to perform in accordance with its provisions and you have the right to expect such performance. Your move coordinator should have a copy of the TOS for your review.

Your Move

Communications
• Communication between you, your move coordinator, and the moving company is vital to the success of your move. If you have any questions, ask! If anything is wrong, contact your move coordinator.

Your Rights

• You have the right to have qualified, professional personnel pack, load, transport, unload and unpack your HHGs

• You have the right to an on-site premove survey of your belongings by the mover.

• You have the right to have all items disassembled by the mover at your old residence to be reassembled in your new residence.

• Your have a right to stop the mover's work at any time your believe that to continue will subject you or your possessions to harm.

• You have the right to review and object to the way in which your property is coded on the mover's inventory at origin.

• You have the right to have the mover provide reasonable assistance in the preparation of a claim. This includes the mover providing estimates of repair at its expense.

• You have the right to have your claim acknowledged by the mover within ten days and an offer of settlement for your claim no later than 30 days after the mover has received the claim.

Your Responsibilities

• You have the responsibility to ensure that the mover services your shipment in a professional manner and to immediately advise your move coordinator when it does not.

• You have the responsibility to establish with the mover the dates on which your shipment will be packed and loaded.

• You have the responsibility prior to pickup of your shipment to advise your move coordinator, in writing, if you want to declare excess valuation on your shipment above that declared by your agency. Any increased valuation in excess of that declared by your agency must be shown on the GBL.

• You have the responsibility to be present or have your designated agent present as your goods are packed and loaded to protect your and the Government's interests.

• You and your designated agent have the responsibility of verifying and signing the inventory prepared at your old residence to ensure that it properly reflects the contents and condition of your HHGs

• You have the responsibility to advise the mover of everything you intend to move, and you must make accessible to the carrier all items you intend to move, including items in the attic, garage, basement, and storage shed.

• You have the responsibility to disassembled before you move and reassemble after delivery, ice maker refrigerator, swing set, outdoor playground equipment, television and radio antenna, satellite dishes, storage sheds, and other similar articles.

• You have the responsibility for disconnecting/reconnecting arranging to have disconnecting/reconnecting gas and/or electric washer/dryers. You also have the responsibility of draining water beds and washer hoses.

• You also have the responsibility for arranging for the disassembling, reassembling, or servicing/unservicing of articles the require special servicing or the services of a technician or craftsman such as a grandfather clock, hi-fi stereo or other electronic equipment, phonograph sets, gas dryers, wall units/room dividers (German shrunks), electric/pipe organs, hot tubs pool tables, etc.

• You have the responsibility to be present or have your agent present when your goods are delivered to confirm from the original inventory listing the all boxes, furniture, and other items are accounted for and are received in the same condition as when they were picked up. You must immediately notify the carrier and annotate on the carrier's delivery papers/inventory listing all loss or damage that is readily visible as your goods are unloaded.

• You have the responsibility to instruct the mover in the placement of property at your new residence. This does not mean the mover must place articles being unpacked in drawers, cupboards, cabinets, or closets except when articles are removed from hanging wardrobes.

• You have the responsibility to report and submit a claim in writing for any loss/damage discovered at the time of delivery or any loss/damage found after delivery.

The Mover's Responsibilities
• The mover has the responsibility to conduct an on-site premove survey of your property to determine weight, packing material, and containers needed.

• The mover must inspect and perform all packing, crating, and padding necessary to ensure the safe transportation of your belongings. Except for the packing of grandfather clocks and pool table slate, the use of crates must be pre-authorized by the GBL Issuing Officer. At your request, articles such as electronic equipment may be packed in the original containers if the containers are considered by the mover to be in good condition for shipping purposes.

• The mover must furnish clean packing containers of sufficient quality for the protection of your goods, such as barrels, boxes, wardrobes, cartons, all crating material, and all padding materials and equipment. The mover must furnish new cartons for mattress, linens clothing, draperies and other similar articles.

• The mover shall reassemble all property disassembled by the mover at origin (e.g., beds, waterbeds, and sectional bookcases) and shall service all appliances; e.g., remove washer kits, washer packs/locks or special plastic inserts, record player turntables, etc. that were serviced by the mover to ensure safe transportation of your shipment.

• If requested by you, the mover shall unpack and/or uncrate all property that was packed and crated for movement and shall place the property in your new location as instructed by you. When unpacking is performed by the mover at delivery, the mover must remove all packing or related materials from the premises.

• The mover has the responsibility to protect finished surfaces from scratching or marring, to pack books in cartons and separate each row of books with an intervening piece of solid or corrugated fiberboard, and to pack kitchenware by itself.

• The mover has the responsibility to carefully pack such items as glassware, chinaware, and other fragile articles using clean, modern materials. Excelsior or shredded paper is not acceptable. The mover must wrap ornaments, small toys, and other small items individually. The mover must wrap lampshades and pack them separately from other items.

• The mover has the responsibility to securely attach to the article all nuts, bolts, screws, small hardware, and other fasteners removed from the articles so that it may be reassembled properly at delivery.

• The mover has the responsibility to notify you as soon as possible and the GBL Issuing Officer within five (5) days after placement of your HHGs and SIT, of the name, address, and telephone number of the warehouse in which the shipment is stored.

• The mover has the responsibility to ensure that facilities or warehouses used by the carries for SIT are commercial facilities used in the normal receipt and storage of HHGs.

• The mover has the responsibility to inventory at origin all items in your shipment and to specify the actual condition of those items and t list at delivery all loss or damage that has occurred.

• The mover has the responsibility of providing to you all reasonable and necessary assistance in the preparation of claims including repair estimates at no cost to you.